VICTORVILLE — Excelsior Charter School and Brandman University have struck a deal to begin offering concurrent enrollment courses for high school juniors and seniors that will transfer to in-state universities, school administrators said.

The partnership with the local college marks at least the fourth for the charter school chain, which already partners with Barstow Community College, Victor Valley College and Grand Canyon University.

“We’re thrilled, because we really believe the next step for all schools is creating these partnerships with colleges and universities,” said Superintendent Bill Flynn. “We want to make moving from twelfth grade to post-secondary a real seamless transition. There’s a lot of hurdles (to enrolling in college) and we want to help them get past those hurdles.”

At any one time Excelsior has between 125 to 200 students enrolled in community college courses, Flynn said. Most are concurrently enrolled and study on the college campus with adult students or are enrolled in online classes. However, the school offers contracted VVC courses exclusive to its own students in aviation, foreign language and chemistry at its Phelan and AME Academy sites.

“We realize that students take different paths, and we are creating a system that caters to the individual students goals,” Flynn said. “There’s a lot of kids capable of going on to the next level, and they don’t; and it really revolves around not understanding what they need to do, and the obstacles to get to college.”

Excelsior’s partnership with Brandman will be open to 30 students in the first year, but officials hope to expand by garnering community and business sponsorships. Classes offered will be: History 101, History 102, Psychology, Sociology, Economics 101, Economics 102, Communication and Statistics.

All credits earned are transferable to University of California institutions, or UCs, and provide a “spring board” into completing the first year of college, Flynn said.

Brooke Self may be reached at 760-951-6232 or BSelf@VVDailyPress.com. You can also follow her on Twitter at @DPEduNews.